Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Dressmaker, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Transformation, Illusion, and Truth
Vengeance and Suffering
Secrets, Hypocrisy, and Conformity
Memories, Progress, and the Past
Healing, Medicine, and Power
Summary
Analysis
The cast sulks and snaps at each other as Bobby drives them home. When they pull up in Dungatar, they are shocked to find that the town no longer exists—it has been burned to the ground. Nothing is left except a few frightened animals, who huddle nervously nearby. The townspeople traipse up the Hill and find Sergeant Farrat sitting where Tilly’s cottage used to be.
Tilly has burned Dungatar to get revenge on the townspeople, who have always treated her cruelly and whose cruelty indirectly contributed to the deaths of two of her loved ones. By destroying Dungatar, Tilly has revealed the town’s true nature to the world. Although the townspeople try to present themselves as moral and respectable, really, they are corrupt and morally bankrupt underneath.
Themes
The townspeople begin to sob—they have lost their homes and everything they love. Lois says that at least they are insured, but Ruth nervously replies that she gave Tilly the insurance money to pay her for the costumes. Sergeant Farrat begins to giggle hysterically. Mona says that she can see Windswept Crescent from the Hill—it is untouched by the fire. William says that they should all visit Elsbeth, and the Dungatar residents begin to traipse across the hill in their theatrical costumes.
Tilly’s revenge is successful—she burns Dungatar so that the townspeople will know how it feels to lose everything. This is how they have made Tilly feel because they alienated her and her loved ones and indirectly contributed to the deaths of Molly and Teddy, which left Tilly alone in the world. Tilly steals the townspeople’s money to show them how it feels to be taken advantage of, just as they have taken advantage of her and used her dressmaking services with no intention of paying her. Elsbeth is vain and snobbish and wants to control people in Dungatar so that they fall in line with her conservative standards. However, Elsbeth is about to receive poetic justice: although she wants to be in control of the whole town, she is about to find them all at her door. They will likely want the supposedly wealthy Elsbeth to solve their problems for them—a task that she will find is a punishment rather than a triumph.
Themes
